Almost Twilight (20 page)

She
bit her lip until it hurt. Okay, he had said marriage was out, but what had
happened to the trust between a man and a woman? 

Her
throat ached with defeat. She took another step and gulped hard, trying to prevent
the release of hot tears pooling in her eyes.

Rafe
had made a fool of her. While he had been romancing her here in the islands, he
had jerked her dream from under her feet, just like Max had said.

There
was a loud thump, and she lifted her watery gaze toward the kitchen. She
clenched her teeth in rage. The nerve of that man, holding her, kissing her,
not to mention saving her life, and then buying her house behind her back.

Oh,
the poor guilt he would have felt if she had died out there in that terrible
ocean. The rat! 

He
should have let her drown. It would have made his deal much easier.

She
had thought he was different from Roger. But he wasn’t. He was a user and users
never changed.

The
real reason Rafe wanted the house was beyond her. But the fact remained, he had
bumped her contingency straight out the window and hadn’t said a single word to
her.

Sure,
she could always buy another house. And though the Banter house had character,
she knew there would be others.

But
Rafe had lied to her! That fact bothered her more than anything. Even more than
him saying he wasn’t going to marry her. She thought those words had been said
in the heat of anger. But this? Well, this entire house fiasco had been carried
through without any thought to her feelings.

Warm
tears streamed down her cheek, and she wiped them away with the back of her
hand. She drew in a deep, fortifying breath, pushed back her hair, and walked
down the remaining stairs into the kitchen.

A
chair came skidding across the floor.

How
could they ever think she would sleep through this?

“Hello,
boys
.” Both Rafe and Max lifted their heads from their possessive hold
on each other, freezing at the sight of her.

She
tried to push back her tumultuous emotions and act with some semblance of
sanity.

“You’re
supposed to be sleeping,” Rafe said, limping as he tried to pick up one of the
kitchen chairs. Sitting down, he smiled up at her, as if nothing were amiss,
and combed a hand through his disheveled hair. He was panting hard and the
sleeve was torn on his blue golf shirt. A hint of blood seemed to seep through
his pants just above his knee. From the coral reef, no doubt, and Candy
instantly felt a twinge of remorse.

But
it disappeared easily enough when Rafe started talking.

“So,
what would you like for dinner?” he asked.

Candy
glared at him. “Dinner?” 

Max
let out a sardonic snort from the other side of the room.

She
turned on Max and noted the big cowboy wasn’t doing much better than the doctor.
A large beer stain blanketed his half-opened shirt and there was a small cut on
his lip.

“And
what are you laughing about?” she asked.

Wordlessly,
Max gave her that charming Clearbrook grin and shrugged. “Nothing, sugar. Nothing
at all. Oh, we might have been having some discussion about what was for
dinner.”

Candy
folded her arms across her chest and began tapping her feet. “Ah, dinner. You
two boys were fighting over who would do the cooking then. Is that it?”

Rafe
seemed to avoid her steadfast gaze while Max headed for the door faster than
she could count to three.

“Dinner,
sugar? We were just shooting the breeze.” 

A
split second later, he was out the door, whistling,
“Home, Home on the
Range.”

Candy
found herself alone with Rafe. The anger she was feeling simmered like hot oil
on Selena’s frying pan.

Rafe
rose and moved toward her, circling his hands around her waist. His breath was
warm upon her ear. “How about we go into town for dinner, sweetheart? I know
this place that serves the best red snapper. Max can catch dinner on his own.”

“I
don’t think so,” she said, peeling his hands off her and tilting her head back,
giving him her best nurse’s glare. “I have a headache,
Doctor
.” 

His
gray eyes smiled back at her. “You’re not supposed to use that line until we’re
married.”

Confused,
she stood there, mouth agape. What was he saying? That he wanted to marry her? 

“Hey,
don’t worry. I’m not really the wolf those nurses paint me out to be. Nothing
happens until we’re married.” He raised an amused brow as his gaze traveled the
length of her. “It’s just that, uh, we’re going to have to get married pretty
soon. Like tomorrow.” He chuckled. “We can even fly to Mexico. What do you say?” 

Candy
felt a shudder spread through her body when his steady gaze became a tender
caress. Why was he talking about marriage now?

She
was baffled by his behavior. She could not let this man trick her again. He had
stolen her house and lied about it! 

Roger’s
promises came back to haunt her. She glanced at the door, and her heart pounded
in her chest. Escape. All she could think of was escape.

But
that one glance was her downfall. Before she knew it, Rafe had gathered her
into his arms and buried his face in her hair.

“You
are so sweet, like your name. I though I’d lost you out there today.”

Candy
was caught off guard when he took her chin in his hands and kissed her. His
lips were light and gentle, and she found herself falling deeper under his
spell.

With
a stifled sob, she tore herself away.

A
knot of pure pain tightened in her chest when she stared up at him.

He
took her strained look for something else. “What do you think? We’ve known each
other for over a year. We don’t have to rush anything. I was joking about
Mexico, but in a few months, if you’re think you’d be interested...”

“Are
you proposing?”

Gray
eyes darkened with emotion. “If you put it that way, yes, I’m proposing. My
family would like to be there. We can marry in the church...”

Tears
sprang to Candy’s eyes. “If I put it that way?”  

Rafe’s
gaze sharpened. “I know this is fast, but I know what I want. I’m asking you to
marry me, Candy. Will you? When you know it, you know it. And I know I want to
marry you. That close call in the ocean made me realize that life is short, and
I don’t want to lose you. I want you to know how I feel about us.”

Oh,
how she wanted to marry this man. She loved him. She truly did, but unless he
came clean about buying the Banter house, she couldn’t accept his proposal.

“Is
there something you want to tell me first?” she asked.

He
picked up her hand and pressed his lips to each finger, leaving her skin
tingling with warmth. He looked at her then and brought her hand to his heart. “I
love you. Is that what you want to hear me say?”

He
knelt down beside her. She looked beyond the sink window where palm leaves swayed
in the breeze. She needed to set her gaze on anything but his handsome face.

“I
love you, Candy. I want you to be my wife.”

Candy
blinked back tears. “Is there anything else?” 

He
abruptly dropped her hand. “What do you mean is there anything else? I don’t
have a ring with me right now, but I’ll buy you the biggest diamond you’ve ever
seen. Like I said, we don’t have to get married right away. We can give our
relationship a little more time.” He smiled. “But I want to have that
engagement ring on your finger. I know this is fast, but it’s not as if we
didn’t know each other before the islands.” 

Her
throat tightened with pain. “That’s not what I meant.”

He
looked confused and hurt.

“I
mean,” she said, “Is there anything else you need to tell me before I answer
your question? This isn’t open-heart surgery, you know. A simple answer on your
part will suffice.”

 He
stood up in one fluid motion, his hands stiffly at his sides. “You want to know
if I’ve had any previous children, or a divorced wife I send alimony payments
to, is that it?” 

His
dark eyes flashed a stern warning that told her he didn’t like the turn of
conversation. It was as if she didn’t trust him. “You’ll be glad to know, Nurse
Richards, I don’t have any children or wives waiting for me. If I did, I would
have told you.”

When
she bit her bottom lip, he gave her a questioning glance. “Candy?” He put his
arm out, frowning. “Sweetheart?”

“What?”
she snapped, taking a step toward the door. The concern in his eyes infuriated
her.

“Do
you need to tell me something? Do you have any skeletons?”

“Skeletons?”
She shot him a wry smile. “If you mean, was I left at the altar once before? Yes,
I was.”

“He
must have been an idiot.”

“He
was a doctor, just like you.” The venom in her voice set him back a step.

A
fleeting look of uneasiness crossed his face. “Now, wait a minute. I never left
you at the altar.”

Her
hands fell to her sides and tightened into fists. “But you lied to me.”

“I
never lied to you.”

She
lifted her chin and met his gaze. “Oh? Then why didn’t you tell me about the
Banter house? I wanted that house, and you bought it, knowing all along I had a
contingency on it.”

He
drew in a sharp breath. “All right, I bought it. I wanted to tell you, but it
was never the right time. And I didn’t know about your interest in the house until
much later.”

“Okay,
then. You didn’t know until much later. But you knew about my interest back in
the casino when I said I wanted that house. So, when you talk about right time,
when would that be? The second you moved into the house?”

“N-no,”
he stammered, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “And besides, what
difference does it make? When we’re married, you can have the Banter House, if
that’s what you want.”

“It
doesn’t matter,” she said, waving her hand in the air, her temper flaring. “I
don’t want it anymore.”

“What
do you mean, you don’t want it anymore? You just said you did. You’re not
making any sense.”

“Don’t
you see? It’s not the house. It’s you. You didn’t tell me. How can I trust you
if you can’t tell me the truth when I ask for it?”

He
slapped the counter with the palm of his hand. “For crying out loud. Do you
really want to know what I wanted to do with the Banter house?”

His
gray eyes had blackened like an oncoming storm, and for a moment, she felt a
small degree of uneasiness.

“No,”
she said, trying to calm down. “It doesn’t matter now. You didn’t tell me when
I asked you.”

“Fine
then. Have it your way.”

“It’s
not my way! You didn’t tell me the truth!”

“I
just did!”

“Not
when I asked.” 

A
muscle jumped in his jaw. “What exactly are you saying?”

“I’m
leaving...today. I’m sorry I’m going to miss saying goodbye to Selena.”

He
looked shocked. “You know what you’re doing, don’t you? You leave now, and...and
it’s the end of us.”

“Us?”
she responded with a choked laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding. There was never
us
.
All this is like some bad dream.”

She stepped
out of the kitchen, glancing over her shoulder. “Oh, and don’t bother to give
me a ride to the airport. I’ll manage.”

“What
about the plane trip? Those tickets you have are nonrefundable and
non-negotiable. You can’t change the date, so you won’t be leaving anytime soon.
And by the way, when you make it out of here, do you think you could really
manage flying by yourself without a doctor by your side?”

Tears
of frustration filled her eyes. “That doesn’t even deserve an answer,
Doctor
.”

His
face turned crimson. Obviously, he was embarrassed at his outburst.

Well,
good, she thought smugly. He deserved the set down. If he thought he could do
anything, anytime, because he was a rich, powerful doctor, he better think
again.

“Thanks
for the vacation,” she said, as she ran up the stairs to pack.

“It
hasn’t been a vacation for me! It’s been more like babysitting!”

“I’ll
make sure to tell Fritz it was an enlightening experience then!” The words
barely made it out of her mouth before she slammed the door and fell onto her
bed with a sob.

“Way
to go,
Doctor
. You can take out an inflamed appendix, but you can’t even
say you’re sorry.”

Rafe
whirled around. “For your information, I am not a surgeon and have never taken
out an appendix! And what makes you such an expert on women?”

 Max
sat on the living room couch, glaring at his brother. He slapped the magazine
he was reading onto the end table and shot from his seat. “I may not be an
expert, but I sure as hell would have had more finesse than you, lover boy. You
are just too stupid for words.”